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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levine and Victoria Bekiempis in New York

Text shows Stormy Daniels lawyer’s shock at Trump win in 2016: ‘What have we done?’

a man in a blue suit and yellow tie outside court
Donald Trump outside court in New York on Thursday. Photograph: Getty Images

As Donald Trump’s presidential victory became clearer and clearer on election night in 2016, an attorney who brokered hush-money payments to bury the then candidate’s alleged sexual liaisons seemed shocked that his efforts had worked, texting his longtime confidant: “What have we done?”

So went the second day of testimony from Keith Davidson – who represented alleged Trump paramours Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal – in the ex-president’s criminal trial. The friend in question was Dylan Howard, then the editor of the National Enquirer. Prosecutors allege that the tabloid veteran kept Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, apprised of damaging information about his boss.

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